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50: NANCY MEYERS

Melinda Sue Gordon

THE EVIDENCE:It’s Complicated (2009), Something’s Gotta Give (2003)

WHY HER: The word ”auteur” generally brings to mind a snobby boys’ club of writer-directors with art-house attitudes and film geek followings. So what can we make of a woman (gasp!) who scripts and directs movies that loads of average moviegoers actually like (double gasp!)? Maybe it’s time to give Meyers her due for the undeniable talents — namely a knack for writing pitch-perfect characters and universally relatable storylines — that have made her, at age 61, one of Hollywood’s hottest brand names. —Adam Markovitz

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49. MICHAEL MOORE

THE EVIDENCE:Bowling for Columbine (2002), Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

WHY HIM: Although his methods are sometimes questionable and his mega-hit Fahrenheit 9/11 becomes less relevant with each passing year, Michael Moore has become an icon of mainstream political agitation more than any American documentarian before him. And for good reason. Bowling for Columbine remains a searing visual essay on millennial fearmongering, while 2007’s Sicko and 2009’s Capitalism: A Love Story are devastating critiques of U.S. policy. Is he patriotic? Yes. Long before ”change” became a winning campaign slogan, Moore fought for our country to be the best it can be. —Christian Blauvelt

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20. David Lynch

WHY HIM: Since the height of his Twin Peaks/Wild at Heart mainstream popularity in 1990, the neo-noir surrealist has directed five films whose combined gross is a whopping… $22 million. And yet 1997’s Lost Highway has spawned a certifiable cult; 1999’s The Straight Story was just plain wonderful; and Mulholland Drive was a flat-out masterpiece that earned him an Oscar nomination and cemented his place on the All-Time Auteur list. (It also launched the career of Naomi Watts, and thankyouverymuch for that.) Yes, nobody saw Inland Empire, his challenging and acclaimed hand-held digital epic, but its Big Picture significance is seismic: At the age of 62, Lynch redefined himself anew as a trailblazing artist and is redefining the whole notion of ”independent filmmaking” for a new generation of eraserheads. —Jeff Jensen

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47. ANDREW STANTON

Deborah Coleman

THE EVIDENCE:Finding Nemo (2003), WALL·E (2008)

WHY HIM: With Finding Nemo, Stanton found a way to make fish charming, even adorable, and in the process delivered Pixar’s highest grossing feature film to date. But Stanton’s second act was even more impressive: making a film about a robot living on a desiccated Earth 800 years in the future, with no human dialogue for almost 40 minutes, into an artistic triumph and a bona fide blockbuster. —Adam B. Vary

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46. WONG KAR-WAI

Everett

THE EVIDENCE:Chungking Express (1994), In the Mood for Love (2000), 2046 (2004)

WHY HIM: Because no one but the Hong Kong auteur could would think to express heartache by showing a lovesick cop mope around his flat and tell a sopping-wet washcloth not to cry about the breakup (Chungking Express). And who but Kar-Wai could make the mere possibility of adultery as tantalizingly gorgeous as In the Mood for Love? 2046 takes that longing and makes it epic. —Missy Schwartz

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45. MIRA NAIR

Everett

THE EVIDENCE:Monsoon Wedding (2001), The Namesake (2006)

WHY HER: Known for her lush visuals, Nair’s films are all testaments to the resiliency of the human spirit. Case in point? The Namesake, her 2006 love letter to India. She even managed to steer Kal Penn away from Kumar and into a memorable dramatic performance. —Aly Semigran

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44. MEL GIBSON

Philippe Antonello

THE EVIDENCE:Braveheart (1995), The Passion of the Christ (2004)

WHY HIM: After winning Best Director and Best Picture for Braveheart, the star took one of the great risks in movie history, putting up his own money to direct a disturbingly graphic — and deeply personal — vision of Jesus Christ’s execution. The Passion of the Christ made over $200 million, paving the way for 2006’s equally bold — though not nearly as successful — historical action epic, Apocalypto. —Adam Markovitz

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43. SPIKE LEE

Everett

THE EVIDENCE:Do the Right Thing (1989), Malcolm X (1992), When the Levees Broke (2006)

WHY HIM: A master stylist, Lee has carved out a niche for himself in American cinema as an activist filmmaker dedicated to social commentary as mythology. His masterpiece, Do the Right Thing, with its bold colors and thumping soundtrack, proves racism to be as unendingly cyclical as the phases of the giant moon hanging in the sky when Klansmen attack Malcolm’s family in Malcolm X. And he’s never lost his edge. Case in point: When the Levees Broke, Lee’s apocalyptic elegy to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, a documentary as epic poetry. —Christian Blauvelt

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42. RICHARD LINKLATER

Everett

THE EVIDENCE:Dazed and Confused (1993), Before Sunrise (1995), Waking Life (2001)

WHY HIM: If anyone can make you nostalgic for high school, or have you wait nine long years to reunite with a long lost international love, it’s Linklater. The worlds he creates, animated or otherwise, capture times and places that are always worth revisiting. —Aly Semigran

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19. Roman Polanski

WHY HIM: Because he brings an artist’s brush to tired genres and creates something totally new and unexpected: the hardboiled noir (Chinatown) and the then-dead horror genre (Rosemary’s Baby). And just when his critics said his best days were behind him and that the years in exile left him with nothing new to say, he won Best Director for The Pianist. —Chris Nashawaty

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40. OLIVER STONE

Everett

THE EVIDENCE:Platoon (1986), Wall Street (1987), JFK (1991)

WHY HIM: Sure, he’s had his missteps (Alexander, W.) but few other contemporary filmmakers have tapped into our latent paranoid fantasies for the sake of catharsis — and provocation — like Oliver Stone. Whether exorcising his own memories of Vietnam in the quasi-liturgical Platoon, capturing the conspiracy-theory-riddled aftermath of Kennedy’s assassination in JFK, or exposing avarice run amok in the all-too-prescient Wall Street, Stone’s approach to history as fever dream keeps us vigilant…so that the American Dream never becomes a nightmare. —Christian Blauvelt

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39. JUDD APATOW

Suzanne Hanover

THE EVIDENCE:The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007)

WHY HIM: At the turn of the 21st century, mainstream Hollywood comedy was in a fallow state: safe, predictable, bland. It needed a good, swift, R-rated boot in the nether regions, and Apatow — with his trademark blend of raunch and sweetness, broad humor and emotional relatability — has proven the man to deliver it. —Josh Rottenberg

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38. JON FAVREAU

Zade Rosenthal

THE EVIDENCE:Elf (2003), Iron Man (2008)

WHY HIM: How could we not include the man who gave us Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell singing ”Baby, It’s Cold Outside”? With Elf, Favreau gave us one of the precious few Christmas movies in recent memory due to become a classic. Why does it work? Probably because of Ferrell’s fruitcake earnestness as well as a visual style reminiscent of Rankin/Bass classics. Topping himself, Favreau marshaled a newfound tech savvy to help launch Robert Downey Jr. back onto the A-list with the comic-book yarn Iron Man. —Christian Blauvelt

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10. Mike Leigh

WHY HIM: The bearded Brit has arguably the strangest working method of any filmmaker: Instead of writing an actual script, he works with his actors for weeks until a story line and dialogue emerge. But he’s responsible for some truly heart-wrenching big-screen stories, not to mention some strong female performances (Secrets‘ Brenda Blethyn, Vera‘s Imelda Staunton). —Dave Karger

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36. BRYAN SINGER

THE EVIDENCE:The Usual Suspects (1995), X2: X-Men United (2003)

WHY HIM: After making a name for himself by deftly navigating the plot twists of The Usual Suspects, Singer scored major box office cred with a pair of mega-hit X-Men movies. Lately, the director has devoted his sizable talent to revitalizing fallen heroes, both fictional — as in 2006’s Superman Returns — or real — like Tom Cruise’s German revolutionary in 2008’s Valkyrie. —Adam Markovitz

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35. DAVID CRONENBERG

Takashi Seida

THE EVIDENCE:Videodrome (1983), The Fly (1986), A History of Violence (2005)

WHY HIM: Few directors get under your skin like Cronenberg. In fact, getting under the skin is pretty much what his work, a cold fusion of psychological and biological horror, is all about. Infections, perversions, exploding brains, naked fight scenes — love them or hate them, you won’t easily get his movies out of your head. —Josh Rottenberg

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34. J.J. ABRAMS

THE EVIDENCE:Star Trek (2006), Mission: Impossible III (2006)

WHY HIM: Who else could have revived Star Trek as blockbuster mainstream entertainment? Thanks to Trek — not to mention TV shows like Lost and Fringe and the 2008 monster mash, Cloverfield, which he conceived and produced — Abrams is viewed as Hollywood’s go-to dude for making geek stuff cool and compelling for both genre fans and the masses. His storytelling voice is pure of-the-moment pop, but he also seems (for now) to have a sixth sense for what’s next. —Jeff Jensen

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33. RON HOWARD

WHY HIM: Whenever you see his name in a film’s opening credits, you know you’re about to see something directed with confidence and class. Always appropriate, rarely showy, he’s the master of taking well-known true stories and making them riveting, even when you know the endings. —Dave Karger

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32. SAM RAIMI

Melissa Moseley

THE EVIDENCE:Evil Dead II (1987), Spider-Man 2 (2004)

WHY HIM: Like Peter Jackson, Raimi got his start churning out cult splatter films. His Evil Dead movies (featuring pal Bruce Campbell) were grotesquely funny send-ups of crude ’80s horror films — yet pretty darn scary in their own right. With 2002’s Spider-Man, he not only catapulted the comic book movie back into the realm of the mega hit, he invented a new down-to-earth, populist urban myth, perfected two years later with Spider-Man 2. But the less said about Spider-Man 3, the better. —Christian Blauvelt

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31. SAM MENDES

WHY HIM: When your first film wins five Oscars, including one for Best Director, the only place to go is down, but Mendes has remained remarkably sharp since dissecting suburbia in American Beauty. His star-studded films — Hanks/Newman, Leo/Kate — are bittersweet symphonies, as graceful as a windswept plastic bag. —Jeff Labrecque

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30. SOFIA COPPOLA

Everett

THE EVIDENCE:Lost in Translation (2003), Marie Antoinette (2006)

WHY HER: There’s nothing surprising about a Hollywood kid trying to follow in her famous daddy’s footsteps. But 1999’s The Virgin Suicides — the directorial debut of Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter, Sofia — still shocked the film world for one simple reason: It was good. Coppola would go on to become the first American female Best Director nominee for Lost in Translation, further carving out her own place in the pantheon of modern directors — right alongside dear old Dad. —Adam Markovitz

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29. WOODY ALLEN

WHY HIM: Four decades after first shuffling into moviegoers’ hearts with his iconic persona of the neurotic shlemiel, Allen still cranks out movies with a regularity you can set a watch to. Not every one measures up with his classics, but 2005’s Match Point and 2008’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona show he still has some tricks up his rumpled sleeve. —Josh Rottenberg

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28. PAUL GREENGRASS

WHY HIM: He used to travel the world filming political-charged documentaries and he once ghost-wrote an expose of British intelligence, so it’s no coincidence that Greengrass was drawn to Jason Bourne. Greengrass’s gritty and terrifying realism (see United 93 and 2002’s Bloody Sunday) cemented Bourne as an icon and reinvigorated the entire action genre. —Jeff Labrecque

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27. ALFONSO CUARÓN

Murray Close

THE EVIDENCE:Y tu mama tambien (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Children of Men (2006)

WHY HIM: You could say it’s because of his fluidity behind the camera — that stunning tracking shot in Children of Men deserves its spot in the single-take hall of fame, right next to GoodFellas and Touch of Evil — or his facility with actors. But he’s here because his real gift is world building; making you believe that Men‘s edge-of-civilization future or Y tu mama‘s hothouse Mexico is a lived-in place. Plus, after two tepid Chris Columbus flicks, Cuarón found the magic in J.K. Rowling’s magical universe. For that, the dude deserves a friggin’ medal. —Marc Bernardin

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15. Darren Aronofsky

WHY HIM: He’s as innovative a visual stylist as any director working today, and his first three films were so dense with ideas that they kept your head buzzing hours after leaving the theater. For The Wrestler, however, the Brooklyn native stripped away all his intricate imagery and heady concepts, and instead used his camera to burrow into his characters’ inner lives — resurrecting Mickey Rourke’s career in the process. With Black Swan, he found a way to marry The Wrestler‘s gritty humanism with his preceding films’ go-for-broke gonzo style. The result? His first Oscar nomination for Best Director. —Adam B. Vary